


Never Meet Your Heroes

by sithwitch13



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Developing Relationship, F/F, F/M, M/M, Multi, OT4, Post-Star Wars: The Last Jedi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-23
Updated: 2017-12-23
Packaged: 2019-02-18 22:00:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,944
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13109358
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sithwitch13/pseuds/sithwitch13
Summary: Rose is in love with a hero. And another hero. And then another hero.They think she's a hero, too.(There will also be action, adventure, and rebellions along the way.)Post-TLJ.





	Never Meet Your Heroes

**Author's Note:**

> Just saw TLJ for the second time, and if at all possible I loved it even more. And it kicked my ass to keep working on the fic I started writing the night the movie came out.

 

 Before she could think, Rose was aware of the pain. Bone-deep aching in her ribs and head, sharp knives in her arms and shoulders that made her sick. Something or someone holding her down as she tried to escape it, and a familiar voice: “Rose, you need to hold still, we need to—”

 

When she started to think again, she realized that she _could_ think, and thought, _Oh good, we’re alive_. Another voice, a female voice, said, “Yes, we are.” _Paige,_ she thought, before she drifted off again.

 

Then she remembered that Paige was dead and started crying. The tears hurt—not just the act of crying, which wrenched at her aching ribs, but stinging down her face. An unfamiliar voice somewhere asked about painkillers, and before she could tell him that the pain wasn’t why she was crying, they had given her something that took her back under.

 

Finally, _finally_ , she woke up for real. Everything still hurt, and her eyes felt gummed shut, but she forced them open anyway. The low vibration of her surroundings made her think of a ship, and when she focused she saw the familiar industrial look that confirmed her suspicions. She could hear low conversations from a distance, and sitting on a crate nearby, looking exhausted, was a familiar-looking girl, maybe her own age. She also looked battered, her face bruised and a bandage around her bare upper arm. Rose must have made a noise, because the girl looked over and smiled.

 

“Hey,” she said. “You’re awake. I know it hurts, but—”

 

“You’re Rey,” Rose said, her mind un-fuzzing enough that recognition kicked in. “You went to find Luke Skywalker, didn’t you?”

 

The light in Rey’s eyes dimmed, just a little at that. “Yeah,” she said quietly. “That’s me.”

 

“But you’re here,” Rose continued, confused. “What happened? Where are we?”

 

“I should go get Finn. He’s asleep, but he wanted to know as soon as you woke up.”

 

“Finn’s here?” Rose swallowed, her throat dry and painful.

 

Rey seemed to pick up on this and held out a half-full container of water that it looked like she’d been drinking out of. “Go ahead,” she said, after Rose hesitated. “I’m done, I promise.” As Rose sipped cautiously, Rey watched her. “We’re on a ship. We escaped Crait about a day and a half ago, and you’ve been unconscious since then. Finn said you crashed your fighter into his?”

 

Rose closed her eyes and thought back to the last things she remembered. The brightness of Crait’s salt flats, the mind-numbing fear in her stomach and the wind in her face… a kiss. She felt her face heat at that.

 

If Rey noticed, she kept it to herself. “We’re alive, and that’s what matters.” It sounded like she said it as much to herself as to Rose.

 

“Yeah,” Rose said, looking over to Rey. The other girl looked lost, unaware of Rose for the moment. Her fists clenched in her lap, and the muscles in her jaw twitched as she set them hard. Instinctively, Rose reached out and touched Rey’s arm, feeling the tension and the slight tremble of over-taut muscle. Rey looked at her sharply, and Rose drew back. “Sorry,” she said, dropping her eyes. “But you’re right. We’re alive.” She closed her eyes, thinking of Paige again, feeling the weight of her medallion on her chest. “So there’s hope, right?”

 

Rey seemed to be examining her, and Rose wanted to shrink away, or maybe pretend to be unconscious again, but the second broke and Rey smiled, a beautiful beaming grin. “Exactly,” she said, reaching out and patting Rose on the arm. “And now I really should get Finn, or he’s going to yell at me.”

 

“We wouldn’t want that.

 

Rey paused, getting to her feet. “It’s fine, he’s just a bit high-strung. And he really did want to know if you were okay.” She smiled again. “I’m glad you’re okay, too, Rose.”

 

And that was how Rose Tico met Rey.

 

* * *

 

 

Finn caught Rose up with the rest: what had happened after her reckless (and stupid, in his words) rescue of him, including how Luke Skywalker had appeared out of nowhere and bought them the time to escape. And most painfully, how there were only a handful left from the pitiful few there had been when they’d landed on Crait.

 

She’d sat up by then, and the weight of the snowgrape leaf medallion around her neck seemed heavy to her. All those lives, from Paige down to these few clustered in the _Millennium Falcon_.

 

(Rose wanted to flail when he told her that detail, but her arms hurt to much. She settled for a quiet internal freakout instead.)

 

“So where are we going now?” she asked when he’d been silent for a while.

 

Finn shrugged. “I dunno. General Organa and Poe are still talking it over. Weighing options. I haven’t been able to help much. I, uh... didn’t exactly get out a lot.”

 

“I don’t know,” she said, picking at her blanket for lack of anything to do with her hands. “It’s not like you weren’t educated at all, right? You know what the First Order knows. Like, about what planets they’d think to look at.”

 

He brightened at that. “Hey, yeah.”

 

“See? You can help. I mean, it’d be nice to have you here talking with me, too, but…” She cleared her throat. “I mean, it’d be selfish to keep you here if you can help more somewhere else.”

 

He reddened, and she knew she was blushing too. Yeah, there had been that kiss. She wondered if she could claim amnesia, or a head injury. Or maybe she should just own it and run toward that. Before she could puzzle that out, Finn said, “You won’t be alone. I know Rey’s been by a few times, and Poe at least once.”

 

“Poe? Commander—Captain—whatever, Dameron? Really?”

 

“Yeah,” Finn said, and there was no way she could miss the way his face lit up at that. It tugged at her heart a little, but she pushed it aside. Tried to, anyway. “He wants to come by more, but with… you know, everything—he’s pretty busy right now.”

 

“I understand. And I’m flattered. Poe Dameron wants to watch me sleep. Wow.”

 

Finn laughed at that. “I think he wants to thank you.”

 

Rose raised her eyebrows. “For what? I didn’t do anything.”

 

“Well, you saved me.” He paused. “Thank you. I should have said that earlier.”

 

“I get it,” she said, reaching out to take his hand, then hesitating. Rey hadn’t been comfortable with that. Rose was used to Paige and Cobalt Squadron, people who were comfortable touching and feeling and hugging. Finn hadn’t grown up like that, so far as she knew. She couldn’t picture stormtroopers hugging.

 

But he took her hand and squeezed it. “No, really. I was angry. But you were right. And I’m pretty glad to be alive.”

 

“I’m glad you’re alive, too,” she said, squeezing his hand back.

 

They held hands for a few more heartbeats before Finn let go. “I’ll go find Rey and see if she can sit with you. So you won’t be lonely. Unless you want to go back to sleep? You look pretty bad.” He winced. “I mean, you look like— _you_ —but—”

 

“I look like I crashed my ski speeder,” she said, interrupting him and smiling. “And I kind of feel like it, too.”

 

“Yeah, the Falcon only has a basic first aid kid, and we only have the medical equipment we could carry. Sorry.”

 

“At least I wasn’t hurt worse.” Rose adjusted herself in the bunk, wincing as the wall hit a sore spot. “Hooray for safety gear. Probably would have been better if it had been properly maintained, but what can you do?”

 

“Keep you around to maintain it,” Finn said. “I’ll be back, I promise.”

 

* * *

 

 

She dozed off again at some point after Finn left, her sleep shallow and her dreams murky. When Rose woke up again, Rey was there, back seated on the same crate she had been on before, only now she was asleep, too.

 

Rose hadn’t heard as much about Rey as she had Finn—just that she had gone off to find Luke Skywalker, really. And apparently, she had succeeded. Luke Skywalker had saved them, only to vanish again, like the legendary hero that he was. Maybe he’d show up again when they needed him most.

 

Asleep, she didn’t look anything like the maybe-Jedi that Finn had told her about, the savior who had lifted a rockslide out of their way and let what was left of the Resistance escape. She just looked tired, and battered, and very young. Kind of like how Rose felt herself, right now.

 

Commander Dameron—damn, _Captain_ , he had been demoted—was he still demoted? Maybe they had all been given promotions… in any case, he slipped by so quickly that she barely noticed, her attention caught by the soft machine sounds of his droid rolling over to Rey. She nearly missed him poking his head around the corner and flashing a quick smile before he was gone again. She was fine with that, really. She was too tired to have the energy to be flustered.

 

The droid, an orange and white BB unit that was a familiar sight to even her maintenance crew, swiveled its single eye to her and gave a quiet inquisitive chirp. Rose held up a finger to her lips and pointed at Rey. The droid looked over and nodded, settling itself in by Rey’s leg with a few hushed chirps. Rose couldn’t help but smile. When she and Paige were kids, their dad had brought home a young rock puppy for a few nights—they couldn’t afford to keep it, but they could still play with it for a while, and the puppy acted a lot like the BB unit acted now, nuzzling in protectively.

 

Despite the attempt to be quiet, Rey stirred, jerking awake with one hand thrown out. “Oh, BB-8. It’s you,” she said, smiling, lowering her arm to pat the droid, who beeped happily. She saw Rose’s open eyes and shrugged sheepishly. “Sorry if I woke you up.”

 

“No, I’ve been awake for a while. Trying to stay awake now, actually. I hate that I just keep drifting off.”

 

“You’re hurt. Your body wants to recover. Sorry we don’t have bacta in the ship—at least, not that I’ve been able to find, anyway.”

 

Rose perked up. “Is the _Millennium Falcon_ yours now?”

 

Rey grinned and shook her head. “No, it’s Chewbacca’s. He’s been flying it longer than we’ve been alive. But he’s kind enough to fly me around and let me copilot. It’s a lot of fun, actually.”

 

“I can only imagine,” Rose said wistfully. “Here I am on the most famous ship in the galaxy and I can’t even get out of bed to poke around in her systems.”

 

Now Rey laughed. “Between you and me, I bet we could make the old girl run the best she ever has.” Rey’s bruised face softened. “You know, we wouldn’t even be on the _Falcon_ if it weren’t for Finn.”

 

Rose raised her eyebrows and Rey snickered. “What, he didn’t brag about it? When we met on Jakku, he was the one who suggested we steal her.”

 

It was Rose’s turn to laugh. “Finn? Steal a ship? I can’t see it. I mean, we stole a ship. Two, technically, but the second time was from the First Order and things were sort of blowing up around us so I don’t think it really counts. And technically BB-8 stole the first one.”

 

Rey gasped and looked down at the droid, who beeped and managed to look innocent. “BB-8, you have hidden depths,” she said. “Does Poe know?” She laughed, then sobered again and looked at the floor. “Actually, about Finn.”

 

Oh no. She knew about the kiss. Rey and Finn were involved, and Rey was going to warn her off, which would be so upsetting because Rey seemed really nice and Rose really liked Finn, and—

 

“I wanted to thank you,” she said. “For saving his life.”

 

“Oh,” Rose said faintly.

 

“He means a lot to me. He… he’s my first real friend, I think, unless you count BB-8. Which I know _you_ do,” she said, addressing the droid. “Anyway, when I left, he was still unconscious. And I was so scared that I’d never see him again. And then I find out that he nearly killed himself, but you—” Rey’s voice broke, and when she looked at Rose, her eyes shone with tears. “I can’t thank you enough, and I can’t ever repay you.”

 

Rose felt her face flush. “You don’t—I mean, there’s nothing to repay. He’s my friend, too. He’s a good guy.”

 

“He is. I don’t know what I’d do without him.”

 

And Rose felt her heart drop. Which was a horrible, selfish thing to feel, she knew. But she knew that if it were a choice between her and Rey, Finn would choose Rey. He knew her longer, and she was a Jedi or something, and she was so pretty, and Rose was just… Rose.

 

Rey must have picked up on Rose’s mood change—duh, the Force—and rushed to console her. “But he’s here! Because of you. If there’s anything I can do to help you, just let me know. I know you said there’s nothing to repay but I just… look, I need to do _something_.”

 

And nice. Rose had to add nice to the list. Still, she worked up a hopeful little smile for Rey. “Can you show me around the _Falcon_ some time?”

 

Rey grinned, and it was like the sun coming out behind clouds. “Of course! We’ll get up to our elbows in grease. With Chewie’s approval, of course.”

 

* * *

 

 

The two of them talked about starship maintenance for what felt like hours, with Rose sitting up and Rey coming over to prop her elbows on the bunk. They were in the middle of an animated conversation about some of the weirdest jury-rigged solutions they’d ever found to mechanical problems when someone knocked.

 

The _Falcon_ ’s crew quarters didn’t have a door, exactly, but it did have something of a doorway separating it from the rest of the ship. And while space was at a premium at the moment, with the remainder of the Resistance aboard, people had seemed content to give Rose and Rey room while they talked. Except now, Finn and Poe Dameron stood in the doorway, Poe with a big grin and Finn looking anxious.

 

“Are we interrupting?” Poe said. “Because I may not be able to understand the finer points of whatever you were talking about, but it’s always fun to be included.”

 

“No, it’s fine,” Rey said. Rose noticed Rey blushing. Not that she could blame her. The few times she’d met Commander Dameron, he had been amazingly charming. No wonder people followed him on stupid, stupid plans.

 

“You should probably rest—” Finn said.

 

“No, come on,” Rose said before he could finish backing out. “This is the most awake I’ve felt in a while. I might even start doing laps around the ship.”

 

He looked skeptical, but took a step inside the crew quarters anyway. “If you’re sure.”

 

“We’re sure,” Rey said. “Come on, sit down somewhere, take a break. Rose, do you mind if I sit on the bunk with you?”

 

Rose scooted over as much as her injuries would allow, and Rey scrambled up over the sounds of Finn’s halfhearted protests. Poe dragged a crate over next to Rey’s vacated seat and patted it as he sat. “C’mon, buddy, don’t leave us hanging.”

 

Finn hesitated for a second longer, bouncing on the balls of his feet, before sitting. Poe clapped him on the shoulder. “There you go. Gotta take the down time when you can find it. First rule of the Resistance. Right, Rose?”

 

He turned that million-credit smile to her, and okay, that was not fair. She stammered something and nodded, and Poe grinned.  “See? So, what were we talking about? Power barrelers?”

 

“Bafflers,” Rey said, and yes, she was pink. At least it wasn’t just Rose. “Rose was telling me how she came up with a solution for those on a larger scale.”

 

“What’s a power baffler?” Finn asked.

 

“Oh, nothing, it’s just a thing.”

 

“A really _incredible_ thing,” Rey said, grinning. “Tell them!”

 

“Yeah, tell us. Anything I’ve used?” Poe asked.

 

“No, it barely got used. It was for the bombers. For Cobalt Squadron.” She saw Poe’s expression still and fall, and started talking faster, suddenly anxious. “You know how spy probes have a shield that keeps them from sensors? I made this device to help the ships to do the same sort of thing, but on a larger scale—you know, disperse output from their power sources so long- and medium-range sensors can’t get a readout.”

 

“That’s incredible,” Finn breathed. Rose beamed.

 

“Yeah,” Poe said, his voice slightly less enthusiastic. “Incredible.”

 

Rey looked at him, then back at Rose, who dropped her eyes. A small, horrible part of her was glad that he felt guilty when she mentioned Cobalt Squadron, glad that the weight of that disastrous attack still weighed on him. The rest of her knew that Paige would be angry at her for thinking that way, would say that it was the First Order’s fault, and and that Paige had made her own choices.

 

But it still hurt.

 

“So,” Rey finally said, a note of false cheer in her voice. “Does anyone know where we’re going?”

**Author's Note:**

> The power baffler thing is from _Cobalt Squadron_ by Elizabeth Wein.
> 
> Find me on tumblr at [sithwitch13](http://sithwitch13.tumblr.com/) for fansqueeing, pictures of cute animals, and an open invitation to bug me about fic progress.


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